Rational Choice Beats Patriotism?

Grover Norquist, the head of Americans for Tax Reform, said Schumer and Casey’s legislation was similar to laws the Nazis wrote before World War II to make Jews pay to leave the country. “He probably just plagiarized it and translated it from the original German,” said Norquist, according to The Hill.

“I know a thing or two about what the Nazis did. Some of my relatives were killed by them,” he said. “Saying that a person who made their fortune specifically because of the positive elements in American society, in turn, has a responsibility to do right by America is not even on the same planet as comparing to what Nazis did to Jews.”

I remember watching the film, Gettysburg. At the high water mark of the South, Pickett’s Charge, the confederates are almost to the top of the ridge, then the Union troops stand up to meet the charge, the American flag unfurled in the wind. I was so proud, my heart beat fast, and I wanted to be with those troops to fight that fight.

Eduardo Saverin is abandoning the United States. The United States has showered him with benefits and protections during all the time that he has lived here. He owes his enormous fortune to the opportunities and the laws found here.

This seems to be less than apparent to some commentators who have likened laws meant to punish those who discard their citizenship and duties as a form of Nazism. These men have also said that Saverin is merely exercising “rational choice” in his behavior.

I am enraged by this.

Memorial day is next week. Several hundred thousand Americans died often in the most ghastly ways so that this person could have the benefits of citizenship.

Every single day, he was protected by millions of serving Americans who live as soldiers, sailors and airmen.

Locally, he was protected by harm by police, fireman and ambulance services – all paid for directly or subsidized by taxes.

For all the time that he lived in this country, he drove on public roads, walked on public sidewalks, and benefitted from the kindness and law abiding nature of the good and great people that make up this country.

By his actions he makes it clear that these mean nothing to him – they are responsibilities that get in the way of profit and profit is the only “rational” choice.

In this kind of morality, patriotism is merely a burden, an inconvenience, an obstacle on the path of financial maximization.

This person has renounced his American citizenship, an honored status for money.

There is no sum worth giving up being an American. Not now – not ever.